I use Thea renderer ($500) which is relatively easy to use compared to say V-Ray.(and cheaper). You could try Kerkythea (free - Kerkythea - Home ) and possibly achieve the same results. There are other options out there too and I think many of which have been discussed on the forums here…pros and cons etc.
It would be misleading to say how long it took me given that I am familiar with the program (10 minutes to set up and a 5 minute render) but if you are new to the rendering software it would take a while longer as you’d have to figure a number of things out, but after that initial setup I think you could save that as a master file and just add your various models in there, maybe save as separate files or you could add scenes with each model on a separate layer?
As you can see from the attached image, I am showing where the camera is placed and the yellow square is a soft area light (the less lights you can use the better), with the white floor.
It doesn’t get much simpler than this. You could forgo the floor and have the object float in space with a white background too, but I thought the shadow added to the realism. The only other thing I used in the render (which is important with reflective materials like metal) is i used an HDRI reflection map (which is a simple spherical image of a studio set up, so the metal will reflect this virtual image of the room) as this helps it look more real, as in the real world the metal surfaces would reflect the room or the studio or setup you are shooting in. In CG, if those elements do not exist its good to put them in, either as a map or physically using other geometry.
I think there’s a disconnect with software and one can often assume it will do the work for you, my analogy is to think of it musically. If you’re giving a guitar to someone for the first time they’re unlikely to produce music without a lot of practice. I think this holds true for 3D modelling and rendering.
It seems like you are a photographer and to render in CG you do need to understand the fundamentals of photography: camera placement, lens and more so the lighting, the type and position etc. You kind of need to bring all that sensibility that you would employ in the real world inside the 3D world.
If there are specific lighting looks you want to emulate there are often photography tutorials on the web for reference and you can then apply that methodology to the sketchup model and renderer.
